The Setting.-Winter begins with a hypothetical taken from Jeremy Paul that posits a society that uses counsellors much as we use lawyers. These counsellors study maxims and precedents before advising clients on important life-choices. "Inevitably, however, some brash young scholar at one of the elite university schools makes a startling discovery: Every maxim appears to have a counter-maxim that, in any given case, could be applied with equal plausibility."

QUESTION: If every maxim has a counter-maxim, what determines which one a counsellor actually applies? This seems to be the crux the anecdote sets up. SEED: Could be an essay angle on how expertise is really discretionary judgment, not rule application — the 'counter-maxim problem' parallels debates in law and ethics.

Philip Chase Bobbitt, Philip Chase Bobbitt - Refl…, loc. 820